Four on the Floor – Kiss.

 

This is one blog that has the potential to polarise the entire readership, love them or loathe them, people have very much an opinion on the group once described the Little Richards of Rock!

Me well I fall into the love them, I can still remember when my brother got Kiss Alive for Christmas and I let him hog the record player most of the day as I fell in love with this band! to be honest Kiss Alive is still my favourite album by them, it’s a straight ten out of ten, so I have disqualified the album from this list as I simply cannot be more biased about it, so I will come back to it in a bit.

To be honest there’s only one album I don’t care about and that is Pyscho Circus, I don’t hate it but I simply don’t care for the whole album as a package, the rest do rotate out of my top five Kiss albums on a daily basis with the exception of Kiss Alive, but I already told you that! So, if we were to do a list of the albums it would be the bottom of all of the Kiss albums, the only thing I can say with any certainty I didn’t care when members left, I simply got on board with the Stanley Simmons point of view, that the band is greater than the members, and I didn’t care when Criss and Frehley rejoined enjoyed Carr, Vincent, Kulick, Singer when they joined.

Kiss – Creatures of the Night 9.0/10.

Now  is this their best studio no, but it’s the album that is burned into my brains from the first listen, some of the songs are a bit…..poor, but I didn’t care, simply listen to Eric Carr’s drums throughout the whole bloody album they are simply awesome, it was a statement of intent to rock or get crushed as they ran over you, this is probably the most consistent album I probably do play this album on any playlist I play it at least twice  a week, and I do play a lot of music! It’s not the most polished production either but the whole album gels and simply ROCKS!

Kiss – Unmasked 8.5/10.

An album I loved from day one, I remember is that you being an opening track on the Friday rock show when the album was released, (do you remember the Friday rock show… TV on the Radio) yes it’s a pop album, so what, it’s the reason why I like the band they never hang their hat on any peg, they are always trying something different, I love the production, and I had the album cover on a dodgy t shirt that I wore until it fell to bits, there’s a couple of  tracks that I simply love (Tomorrow and What makes the world go around) hey even Torpedo girl is funny and only Ace could get away with, it should have sold more than it did!

Kiss – Rock n Rollover 8.5/10.

The first album I actually bought by the band, I bought it the week after Dynasty came out and I was simply hooked, great cover great songs the whole package the last three songs on the album are simply stunning and take my breath away a great rock band, and then came the sophistication that was Dynasty and that really did blow my mind, I didn’t believe that it could have been the same band I love both albums just for completely different reasons.

Kiss – Revenge- 8.5/10.

After wandering a little from Kiss did best this was a true return to form even Simmons was back in the groove with Unholy, Spit and Domino, it all made sense, Bob Ezrin got them back to what they did best play as a band and have fun yes fun but with a capital F,I didn’t care much for the cover but that wasn’t what I bought it for, it was what was in the grooves, it delivered what the band were all about and the stage show and set list on the tour were pretty damn good as well!

To be honest it’s hard to separate any of them (including Carnival of Souls) I could rewrite this blog every single day and come up with something different every single day, and yes I know I haven’t mentioned The elder or destroyer or Love Gun or Lick it Up and all the others, I have friends who are more fanatical than I am, got more copies and different versions of the albums/singles/Cd’s I get that there are people who seen them more than me (9 times in total) but I do love them they are a guilty pleasure that I revel in.

One thing that I will say and it gets me into so much trouble, but its still my fave Kiss song, what’s that I hear you all cry……Kissing Time, a throw away track but I love it, it should have closed every single gig, ha what do I know!

Right Here Right Now Part 3.

Well, that seemed to hit the mark it’s been doing good numbers and is still going strong, why this blog now, well I wanted to get some stuff about the last blog off my chest as there has been a number of comments, both good and bad, so here we go!

So, I blogged and it kind of took off, sometimes those types of blogs do, I have no idea why, they just do, and its one where people want to have their say, well kind of! Mainly it was nice, but I did take some shit, why should you be bothered what I write about something from 45 years ago, so if you sent a shitty opinion FOXTROT OSCAR! I write for me not for you, I had something on my chest and I wanted it off.

I blog for my own mental health and it works for me, go figure, because that’s all I’m trying to do, it wasn’t a woe is me type of blog, it was more of a what if blog. Part of the reason I don’t allow the general viewer to see what’s posted is because some people write shite, its not about you and although I’m venting my spleen here, I can because its my page for my blogs, funny that, if you think I’m going to give you oxygen to air your thoughts on my life, you must be a bigger cock womble that I had assumed, bless you! I would say around 98% of the reply’s were supportive, not that I was asking for any I was simply saying I had had a dream.

I wasn’t saying I wanted to get back with the person I wrote about I was simply explaining that I would like to apologise (no its not a weakness its good manners) for the way we ended, as it happens the person popped up on another friends farcebook page and she look incredibly happy in her life, good luck to her and her family, I love my wife I have no desire to be with anybody else, after 34 years its safe to say we are happy as well, well sometimes we are!

So the next blog will be a musical one, yes it will, how do I know because I wrote it before this one, but I feel the need to get this one out, is it about music it most certainly is, it’s a Four on the Floor blog about Kiss, see I have broken my cardinal rule I have given spoilers out, I might polish it a little but it should be online by Monday, too many blogs at once damages the numbers, and we all know how I obsess about numbers, so thank you for the likes the reads and any sensible comments on the last one, I think it has a way to go yet but hey ho back to the salt mines of blog writing……………………Toodles!

Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

Wow, after a long night’s sleep, which is unusual for me, I had a head full of dreams and  just a few regrets, I awoke later than I normally would and for once I haven’t felt the need to play music, I’m not down I just have a head full of thoughts regarding my dream, which was vivid and strong, strangely I seem to remember most of it.

It primarily deals with people I no longer see, people from school, friends that were and the odd person who wasn’t a friend, I wish I had wrote notes as its fading like the tide as it pulls away from the shore, yes it involves that person from the “Girls” blog and there is something tantamount to regret residing along with that memory, maybe if I could/would/had said sorry the memory could fade, it was and still is the biggest regret of my life!

I wasn’t a bad kid, slightly hyperactive at times, basically I wanted people to like me, the desertion of my father bit harder than I realised and after a course of cognitive behaviour therapy later on in life, of which I had for other issues being discussed, my father was spoken of by the therapist and I was gently nudged to understand that I did have issues at that point that have largely (even now) gone unresolved, I have had no contact with my father since Christmas eve ( I have mentioned it in previous blogs) 1973, again I just got (typical male behaviour) on with it, or so I thought I did, and I don’t blame him for any of my woes, but someone to teach me how to use the tiller in my boat of life might just have made it a better sailing experience for me and all the people in my sphere of friendship.

I recently found out that he died in 1990, not a lot I can do to resolve the relationship, I wasn’t shocked or saddened, I barely remember him, I didn’t hate him then I don’t hate him now, I simply don’t understand how you can walk out and have no further contact with “family” actually I can, again as I have said previously being in this family is like being a member of the CIA, too many secrets and not enough leaks, with only one member of the family I could ask these days left alive, maybe my brother might have insights but I don’t want open that particular can of worms, I doubt I am going to resolve any of this anytime soon, especially as they fucked me off over thirty years ago when all of the cast members were alive! That’s not what this blog is about although no doubt many of the seeds of my time were unknowingly sown at that part of my life, I do feel that many members of my family have hidden or even lied about the events that led to this cataclysmic incident, again because family matters are rarely discussed even now, if done with my brother it sometimes feels like we are playing passy the parcel with an unpinned hand grenade!  

The people from school gave me a happy feeling inside, again I recognise some of my traits were not good, not bad either I simply wanted people to like me, I didn’t really know how to interact in situations with other family groups, I have been told by people that some parents thought I was a little wild, and there’s me thinking I was being adult like and well behaved, it puts your childhood into a different perspective on how people perceived you, I’m glad I’m not in therapy now as it would go on forever, as a youngster I was prone to temper tantrums, thankfully I have mellowed as I got older, nowadays I simply want a quiet life, I suppose many people might not recognise the person they went to school with, maybe they would but hopefully a better version and not the angry young man that I was. I can still do angry, something I don’t care for and something I always regret afterwards, not for others but purely for me, because I know I’m better than that or I should be.

The dream that started this retrospective was I met the person from the “Girls” blog and we discussed everything and I apologised for anything that I did at the time, at that age I had a tendency to say “Fuck it” and damn the consequences, what a silly boy I was, because obviously they are still with me all these years down the line obviously they appear to be magnified to me as I sail along, having said that this is the only relationship that I miss in a serious way, we were young she treated me like a human being and I was a mixed up kid who thought that the nice things in life didn’t last, I know that they don’t, people grow up and move on, I miss my friends from this era and yes we speak to each other if we bump into each other, but they move on and there is no connection, that is something else I don’t understand, was I such a dick (don’t tell me I’m heartbroken enough over the loss of these people in my life) I could go knock on some doors and say sorry for whatever I may have done, they could also look at me as though I’m some kind of lunatic and wonder what the hell I am talking about, seeing as I haven’t done anything wrong, and they simply got on with their lives while I haven’t!

At the age that am, I have no understanding of how life works at all, I have bimbled through life with no real idea about anything other than being angry, thankfully this happens far less now as I realise, what’s the point? My brother who was one of the most anti-social people in life has adjusted to life and talks to millions ( a slight exaggeration I know)of people but he sees people in the street and says I went to school with them (in different years) he asks me all the time if I remember so and so and unfortunately I don’t remember them at all, I have been recently diagnosed with prosopagnosia (Brad Pitt suffers from it , I wonder if we are related?) its face blindness, maybe this has been the root of all my issues, LOL I doubt it, but at this stage in my life I will clutch at any straws that might resolve the issues in my poor demented head!

So, what’s the point of this blog? I have not a bloody clue, I simply like millions of other people wish to be happy, I want to know that I haven’t caused anybody else any harm, I wish to know that the people who I called friends at school have had a good and productive life, I do genuinely miss them, If by saying sorry resolves any issues that I may have caused or simply have been oblivious about, well I am sorry from the bottom of my heart, now I am clever enough to know that none of these people and the person who the dream was about last night never read this blog, in truth I know very little about the people who read the blog other than I see where the readers originate from (however with the use of VPN’s these days it could all be lies) sometimes I gaze into the belly button of life, as always not the blog  as was in my head this morning, but its nice after all the years of horrible repetitive dreams that I had in my younger days, its nice to have something with a positive outcome, shame it will never happen in real life, as the world conveniently slinks me in the present day, I’m not a bad person honestly, and if you did know me when I was younger, approach me and tell me what I did wrong, I will probably apologise profusely!

Well, that felt good to get off my chest (I think) the world keeps turning and I will plod on in life again thanks to everybody who has been reading the past blogs the numbers are starting to slow down but I don’t care as I am very happy with what we have had, stay safe, stay alive and until the next blog (definitely a musical one) ………………Toodles!

Dark Days in Paradise.

I have discovered that we are not living in a brave new world, that was going to be the name of this blog until I discovered that I had already used it, so I thought of a better one, it’s rather more apt.

Life has taken a turn for the worst for some reason, I have been pretty much jolly since the beginning of the year, trying to be positive, trying to be helpful, just generally being a good egg, now it hasn’t been easy there are some complete trumpets out there in the world, and they have succeeded in dragging me down! It seems to start with the little things, it’s always the little things, it’s like water it finds someplace to get into and causes absolute chaos!

Since the beginning of this week there has been generally  a gloomy feeling as the day progress’s, the more I deal with people the more I despair for the people on this planet, and to be honest I don’t care for the bulk of them they bring it on themselves, the intention here is for me to rant, get everything off my chest, something I need to do as everything caught up with me this morning and I had an angina episode, nothing that was going to send me up the stairway, but enough for me to go “ow”.

Work has turned to treacle, and again I don’t intend to go into too much detail as that’s what got me wound up in the first instance, I like my job, I like 99.9% of the people but just because they are educated, it doesn’t mean that they are clever, its just me now instead of two gophers and an engineer, now its simply one gopher and the workload has exploded, there are some cunning plans, it’s not like they aren’t trying to resolve the issues, it simply wont be resolved over night (a lottery win would resolve it), I was fighting the good fight and was doing alright until I was pulled aside yesterday and I was told that there had been a complaint, I started racking my brain because this job is way different than my last job, although I was a good boy there, I still tended to reply before my brain had engaged “adult answer” this job “adult answer” is permanently engaged, or so I thought, it was explained as I was teaching when discussing arson and the people who perpetrate it I called them” NEDs” that’s None educated Delinquents, and somebody had taken offence, if they had heard my response when I was told they would have been really offended, I wanted to go and hunt them down, but my anger soon subsided and pity flooded my brain, as I thought how petty they had to be, put it played on my brain and I left work as soon as I possibly could, I got home and I wasn’t in my best mood, I apologised to wife, but the mood stuck with me and I fell asleep in the chair downstairs for the longest sleep in nearly three months (over seven hours if anybody is interested).

I awoke to my alarm sounding something that hasn’t happened in nearly four years and although groggy I knew that my mood hadn’t lifted, I had the desire to build a cupboard under the stairs and crawl into and ignore the world, unfortunately I had to get my big boy pants on and suck it up, I got myself sorted and set off for my bus (yes I’m a bus wanker) and the vibe I gave off meant absolutely nobody sat anywhere near me, I got to my halfway point then changed buses after a twenty minute wait (in the old days I would have simply walked the distance in that time) we got on but by the forth stop all the bells and whistles were going and the driver jumped out in shock, he was straight on the phone but ignored everybody so about 95% of us got off, most people seemed to close to their destination, I had a three quarters of a mile to walk so I set off slowly (its my only speed these days) ten minutes later the same bloody bus passed me, I wasn’t happy and my mood was out of the cellar and digging to the earth’s core, I trudged on in pain but I was determined that I wasn’t going to be late.

Halfway there when I was as low as I could I bumped into a member of staff going in the opposite direction, their professionalism lifted my spirits, a brief chat nothing serious just the weather and where was I heading but it relit the spark and I was back trudging (what like felt) up the mountain, I got there just as the security team ( I had mentioned that I may not got in the building and that nice lady had tried to organise me a lift as well as assist me in to gain entry to the building) got there and we exchanged insults as we English tend to do, that’s how we get through life, we had a bit of banter and they cracked on, I chuckled as I entered the building (my pass did get me in) the staff on site were super helpful and that’s when God decided he would have a little fun and I’m glad I was sitting down as my angina kicked in! again the staff were super attentive (I’m ok its only indigestion……erm not!).

Thankfully when the angina faded away (yes I used my spray) I got on with the job in hand and was soon finished the inspection part, the writing up will take longer (all 34 pages) but my mood was lifting, not joyous, but better, thankfully there was no “Bob” (please see previous blogs) I think even he sensed I would have tore him a new arse if he had tried his shenanigans! The thing that has affected my mood is that I don’t feel as though I belong, I feel as though I’m not good enough for the people around me, I’m not sure that I want to belong, if I’m being brutally honest, who knows, I know I certainly don’t!

My feelings of unhappiness were certainly at a high tidal mark ( I just hope it hasn’t left a stain) in the scheme of things , thankfully as they return to a normal level( again I’m not happy but I’m not as unhappy as I was) I need to give my head a shake and get on with things simply for the benefit of every one else, the youngest is here helping out and her and the wife have gone swimming (that’s a good thing for the wife) so I need to complete all of my work tasks, well most of them, then onto plotting new cunning plans and raids across foreign shores (that just means we actually leave the house to do something other than food shop), I didn’t have a plan for a blog as the numbers have been going through the roof and I was distracted, maybe that’s why I have been down so much this week, don’t worry normal service may/will return in the coming weeks.

Thank you to all the people who have been reading the old blogs and have been leaving comments, no they don’t show on the blogs anymore as I have them hidden and I don’t respond to them unless I do Now Hear This type of blog, so stop pestering me and watch this space, the weekend is coming over the hills and across the moors the hurricane is potentially coming to visit (that will bring cheer to this miserable old git) oh I need to be careful there could be complaints about my language , so onwards watch the skies for incoming please stay safe and stay alive until the next time………………..Toodles!  

Man on the Edge.

For some reason I have had this song in my head all week, I have no reason why, I mean I’m not even a big fan of it, I simply can’t seem to shake the bloody thing!

So yes, the name game is in play for anybody who wants to play along, the only real bright spot in my life at the moment is the numbers for the blog, simple things for a simple man, I know I said it before you all piled in.

The title could have been any number of songs, but generally I seem to be falling an awful lot of late both figuratively and actually! We keep getting curve balls thrown at us, and although we seem to dodge most of them, it still seems to gets us on the rebound, I have tried to be good, but life keeps kicking me in the butt.

Work seems like I am the mole in whack a mole and it’s only going to get worse; I also didn’t win the EuroMillions this week so there’s no sign of my escape planning coming to fruition, well not yet! I took a slight tumble as I tried to motivate myself to get to a bus stop in time for me to make a connection, however it turns out the bus I saw and thought was going to take me to my destination went the other way and my futile attempt to pick up speed simply made me look like the old man that I have become, copious amounts of painkillers got me through the next 24 hours, go figure!

I realise that I’m no longer the world class (cough splutter) athlete that I once was, but my ego has been seriously delated in the last few months! We initially had a bit of good fortune but it’s still tempered with the ongoing saga of the crap with the estate of the kraken, which two years down the line is really starting to annoy me and its simply not helping the wife and her grieving, it’s like a scab that just as it heals gets ripped off and we have to start all over again, Legal people have one speed…..SLOW! the wife sorted out 99% of the issues within 14 days here we are 24 months later and the issue still isn’t resolved, we wont see any money out of it, we don’t care,  we simply wanted to clear the debt, all the while interest is still accruing I still say we should wash our hands of it and walk away, we have spent over a thousand pounds of our money paying for things including insurance, I keep getting told that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, I have a sneaky feeling it’s an oncoming train!

Music still is a massive part of my emotional blanket, I’m glad I don’t drive, simply as I drift off into the memories that surface while listening, one of the main joys this week is the remastered version of Queen’s debut album with an added track I must have played it more than half a dozen times, but I still go back to when I first heard it in 1974, who knew it would still be with me all these years later, I have to admit that six of the first seven Queen albums have been in heavy rotation this week, you have to rely on the classics!

A number of cunning plans keep resurfacing this week we simply have to pick one and walk briskly with it, I would say run but neither myself or the wife can…...at the moment! The wife is coming up on the outside lane with a dodgy knee (in a manner of speaking) I can’t say I sympathise, as I am suffering just as bad, as I set off to work to complete yet another 10000 to 18000 steps carrying a 23.9 KG bag ( I know its 24 KG it’s a two person lift and there’s only me so go figure) I have to tell myself telling her to “Suck it Buttercup” would probably see me stop breathing in the middle of the night, I might be dumb but I sure ain’t stupid (erm……).

So, that’s another blog complete let’s see if the numbers continue to rise, I don’t care as it something of a mystery why all of a sudden people start to read the back editions of the blog, but over 5000 hits in the last week is a bloody good mystery for me to have, so until the next one stay safe and stay alive, but for now it’s Toodles!

Right Here Right Now. Part 2.

Life seems to be one long cluster fuck after another at the moment, in my home life, Work, my Health, you name it, its circling the drain, but I’m not going down without a fight!

Work, there was/is redundancies, I was told I was safe, but my opo went and now my boss who was knocked back has left anyway, he went and got another job and is away so that leaves me, all by myself (I’m sure that there’s a song in there somewhere) yeah with the way my health is, let’s just say it’s getting interesting!

My Home Life, well there’s always drama in and around us, not between me and the wife, just nothing going according to plan, the wife has severe health issues and is now following me down the route of having a dodgy knee, I’m not being helpful as I suffer every day, me simply saying suck it up buttercup hasn’t helped at all…….OOPS!

My health is as crap as ever, I did have a rant at the last appointment saying I was doing everything that they have asked me to do with little or no success, to say I’m a bit miffed is an understatement, and a stern message was delivered, do something that will help or I will go off reservation and I don’t give a damn on the consequences! The staff are great, however they are following the party line, they know my feelings and they know I will follow through with my promise!

About the only thing that’s been doing well is this, the blog itself, for some reason peeps have been reading back issues and the numbers are through the roof, and I have no idea why!

Technology isn’t helping as my laptop has gone through a number of upgrades and now it seems to do whatever it likes, admittedly this particular laptop is 14 years old and all though I do have a couple of newer ones this is the one that appears to act as my muse, unfortunately most of the various platforms that I interact with peeps seem to not want to talk to me, so if you have been conversing with me and are not now, blame technology and not the luddite operating this fine piece of technology!

And that’s me disappearing down the rabbit hole, trying to gain some semblance of sanity, to be honest at the moment I really don’t give a rat’s ass about most things, but my bilge pump has stopped working and soon I’ll be drowning and not waving! People seem to like this type of blog 500 words and under so lets see how this one does, the last music one did above average and I have another nearly finished so hopefully will be along before to lo soon, so on that note, thanks for the peeps doing the reading, watch this space as there is more on the way soon!

Four on the Floor – Uriah Heep.

I have to admit to liking most variations of Uriah Heep, the only album I can honestly say I don’t like is Conquest (the first album ever recorded digitally fact fans) I like John Sloman as a vocalist, I simply didn’t like that album, so here we go my four Favourite Heep albums.

Uriah Heep – Demons and Wizards 1972.     8/10.

I heard this and the album Return to Fantasy on the same day ( on the day of release for the latter, and Demons and Wizards pip it at the post, I was never a huge fan of David Byron’s voice, it was OK on record but the live stuff I heard it was slightly off, he was a nice enough as I met him when he played at the Mayfair and Robin George was his guitarist, but I loved a couple of tracks on this album, The Wizard is still my fave Byron track/vocal and the whole album is pretty consistent musically and production wise, remember this was in the days when they used to release an album every six months.

Uriah Heep – Innocent Victim 1977.    8/10.

I like all of the albums (all three of them) that John Lawton sang on, even if he did look a little (ahem) dodgy this is the pick of the three, a little more “poppy” if you can believe it especially when it has a track like Free N Easy on it and my fave track with Lawton vocals on “Choices”, I don’t think the audience took him either, great voice but quite wrong image wise, I think that was because of the fact that they were never off the road so the light weight material was easy to produce, I still love Innocent Victim, I know some people who didn’t care for it, however it’s my choice so there you go!

Uriah Heep – Abominog 1982.     9.5/10.

My favourite vocalist and my favourite Heep album, a layoff while they considered their options, no Ken Hensley to bully them into recording his songs, mainly outside writers, and it rocked like a train with no brakes barrelling down hill to destruction, there was enough pace and shade, the only reason it loses from top marks is the production (which I do like) by Ashley Howe was a little muted in parts, I cant think of a single bad track, Pete Goalby sings like an angel again we got three albums before another change of vocalist, but in my eyes this is the perfect album!

Uriah Heep – Wake the Sleeper 2008.   9/10.

I have to admit that the band got off to a rocky start with Bernie Shaw singing, again I like him as a singer I simply didn’t care for the first couple of albums, dodgy production, dodgy record labels, something Mick Box realised, then he took the band by the scruff of the neck and give them a bloody good shake I remember blasting this album to death for nearly a month in my old job, the office was blasted morning noon and early evening I loved it to death and if I’m honest they haven’t done a bad album since, but this is the pick  of the crop for me.

So, there you go I had fun listening to the discography, I always knew which four albums I was going to choose, but you have to play the game don’t you, so until the next time stay safe , stay alive and well……..Toodles!